(MOSCOW, RUSSIA) – The mayor of Moscow has openly criticised the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s push for a total war economy, a stunning public rebuke that signals the accelerating collapse of Kremlin authority. Sergei Sobyanin told the state media outlet TASS that the proposal would “simply destroy the Russian Federation from inside,” joining a growing chorus of regional governors, bankers, and business figures now openly voicing dissent.
The development marks a dramatic shift in Russia’s political landscape. “Just a year ago it was impossible to imagine anyone openly criticizing Vladimir Putin on their state media,” the report noted. “Right now it’s the new normal. It’s the mayor of Moscow speaking against the Kremlin.”
The revolt began in war torn border regions. Governors from Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk oblasts were the first to express open dissatisfaction with the Russian dictator’s handling of the war, particularly after Ukrainian strikes and cross border operations exposed the state’s inability to defend its own territory. Putin responded by sacking many of them, blaming officials for defence failures that are, in reality, the constitutional responsibility of the head of state.
Now the dissent has spread to the capital. Moscow itself has become a war zone, subjected to repeated Ukrainian drone strikes that have rattled the city’s elite. Sobyanin “keeps whining about the success of the Ukrainian drone operators and the failures of Russia’s air defence,” the report stated.
The economic foundations of Putin’s regime are fracturing. The head of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, German Gref, has publicly stated that his dream, along with every other Russian banker, is for “the special military operation to end.” Meanwhile, the head of the central bank and senior figures from Gazprom continue to count staggering financial losses. They “see he is a loser and they are not prepared to share the responsibility for all of his failures with him, even though they are all accomplices,” the report concluded.
Putin’s most influential friends, the oligarchs who once thrived under his patronage, are now trapped in Moscow, unable to flee by air due to the persistent threat of Ukrainian drones. They witness the consequences of the dictator’s chain of mistakes, from the original decision to invade Ukraine to the grinding attrition that has brought war back to Russian territory for the first time since the Second World War.
In a recent exchange, Putin reportedly told a convicted Russian war criminal that he wanted to “continue this war as long as possible,” musing about what purpose he would have when it ended. This obsession stands in stark contrast to the reality described by the growing opposition: a Russia that has lost geopolitical influence, destroyed its economy, and failed to achieve any of its own stated military objectives. The report described it as “an epic fail,” adding that “nothing can erase this Putin’s failure from the world history.”
Be First to Comment